When I was five yeas old, my parents decided to surprise me with two kittens for my birthday. One we named Inky and the other one we named Baby. We were so delighted to have two little kittens in our house, but then chaos began. The cats started getting into everything.
My parents picked out the cats and renamed them. I'm not sure what Inky's original name was but Baby's was something that had to do with trouble. My family clearly didn't pick up on that when we got him. Boy was he a trouble maker. He would go through our house and just create chaos knocking down glasses and doing whatever else he could do to cause trouble. We eventually gave him away to my great-grandmother's nursing home back in 1998. I have no idea if he is still alive or not.
About a year later, a friend of ours found four kittens under her camper with no mother in sight. My parents proceeded to ask me if I wanted another kitten. What's a little girl supposed to do??? Of course I said yes!!! I got to pick which cat I wanted and I even got to name her. At that age I was obsessed with the original disney movie "The Aristocrats". I named my nice new calico cat Ally because I remember hearing the term "Ally Cat" in the movie. At that age I didn't have to fight with the family over who got to name the cat.
Another year went by and we ran into another rescue. We were out camping with family friends who had two teenage girls. The girls had been home all day instead of at the campground. It was lumberjack days too. We were all sitting around the campfire enjoying ourselves and awaiting their arrival. When they arrived they had the tiniest black kitten with them that had the biggest blue eyes. They told their parents that they had rescued this cat off the street and that there was a white one that they couldn't catch. They asked their parents if they could keep the cat to which their parents replied with a big "NO".
My father was sitting by the campfire with a big black coat on. He held the kitten and it curled right up on his should and fell asleep. At this point we knew we had to keep this cat; he was perfect in every way. A year later we found out that they had bought this cat at a local rescue and told their parents that they had found it on the street with the hopes of keeping it. To this day we still bring that up as a great story to tell people. The cats name was Jack because we were at Lumber Jack days.
Sadly ten years later, Jack had difficulty breathing. We took him to the vet a few times and we sadly had to put him down. He would of just continued to suffer. Now he is at peace and his ashes are kept in his loyal human companion's room. The family had a hard time coping; especially my mother and my brother.
Due to my empathy, I have never had a huge connection with pets. I love them and I care about them, but if they are in my space and I am annoyed, I will definitely let them know that I don't want them around. Ally will typically just plop somewhere and i end up picking her up so I can sit there. I love them, but I don't care about them like I do with human kind. When Jack died, I didn't really grieve. We lived in the same house, but I barely knew him. I knew he was my mothers CEC (chief executive cat) as he was affectionately named. I didn't grieve though, but my mom did and I went along for the ride, actually quite literally.
Through my mothers grieving process, her and I decided that we were going to go "look" at the cats at our local pet rescue. I was told not to ask for a cat and to just look because we didn't want anyone to get upset. I don't think my father will let my mother and I ever go out to a pet store alone, again. We looked at all the cats and we were really good about it. I didn't beg and my mom was doing okay, but when we were leaving, something miraculous happened. A young woman came in with a cat that was no more than 4-6 weeks old. I could fit this cat in the palm of my hand practically and as you can see above he could easily fit in a coffee mug. The shelter had no room for the cat. I did end up asking my mom if we could please take him. We went out to the car to have the young woman follow us home with the cat. Her mother popped out of the car and it was our neighbor. We brought him home to the boys who assertively told us that we were not to bring another cat home. We brought the cat in and my brother's face lit up. From that day forward we kept the cat and his name is George My brother named him.
My mom always told me that cats pick people, but people don't get to pick the cats. I always thought that due to my empathy, the cats not ever going to pick me. I thought about stuff that I should do to make a cat love me. Everyone has had a cat in the house except for me. They never really pick me I always thought that if we had four cats there would be one for each of us but thats not how it works all the time. George ended up picking my brother. He's spent a lot of his time in my brother's room as of lately. I think that is going to change soon though because someone has been sleeping in my bed a lot lately.He's a little spoiled.
During the school year I wake up at the same time every morning. I could swear George knows how to tell time. He must be paying attention to when I wake up because for a couple days here and there my cat would come in and sit down beside me to wake me up. It felt really good, but then things changed. He didn't do that anymore, but he went back to my brother's room again. Lately that hasn't been the case again.
George is back in my room now. Every morning he will come in and sometimes he will even lay down to take a little nap. This morning he decided that he was going to do a little more. He came in a little late since its the summer and I have been sleeping in a little bit. This time instead of finding a perfect cozy spot, he laid right down and fell asleep. he curled up in between me, my arm and my body pillow. He laid there on his back like a little baby and fell asleep. I would pet him and he would purr, open his eyes, stretch and fall right back to sleep.
I started to doze in and out of sleep while loving every minute of his attention. I kept wondering when he was going to get up since he never stays there that long. I was hoping he would get up soon, but I knew it wouldn't last. That cat really knows how to be the king. He knows how to rule the roost. He gives you that innocent face when you move. That face just tells you how much he loves you and you just can't resist it. I knew I had to get up because I have been on a really good schedule with my sleep lately. I just kept telling myself, a couple more minutes. thats it. He just continued to lay there. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is the king and he is pretty spoiled. He is my favorite cat after all.
I finally had to say it was time to get up at 9:30. If you know me, your lucky if I stay asleep past 7:30.That cat knows how to suck up I tell you. Today all I can say is how much I love this cat that only knows innocence. He used that precious face of his to show off to my brother and father and he used that powerful face to keep me in bed. His snuggles are so nice and warm and way better then stuffed animals. Lets just hope I get some more love from him again soon. After all, I think he curled right back up in the warm spot I was laying once I left.
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